With Tyrod Taylor As Current Starter, Chargers Win Total Drops To 7.5

The Los Angeles Chargers have made headlines this offseason as they’ve decided to move on from Philip Rivers. The question is who will they go with going forward? While there had been some rumors that they might try to woo Tom Brady, that doesn’t look like a real possibility anymore. With Tyrod Taylor – a holdover from last year – being tabbed as the early starter, the Chargers win total has dropped to 7.5. Is that number too low or are the Chargers in for another long season?

PHILIP RIVERS’ DEPARTURE

It is going to be challenging to assess the Chargers without Philip Rivers. The future NFL Hall of Famer has been a fixture in San Diego and now Los Angeles for a decade and a half. Peyton Manning has retired, but Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, and Rivers remain active as old-man quarterbacks with a vast supply of NFL experience. Rivers’ arm strength seemed to decrease this past season as he had a very hard time throwing the ball deep. Timing and precision routes in the short and intermediate areas of the field have always been his bread and butter, but he hasn’t been able to push the ball as far down the field as he used to, and that is a challenge he has to find a way to meet.

The question is was it Rivers’ fault? Or was it the shaky offensive line or that inconsistent ground game? The Chargers put a lot on Rivers last year and it’s unclear if Tyrod Taylor will be able to do any better with the parts around him.

REGULAR SEASON WIN TOTAL: 7.5

The Chargers are not expected to do much, but let’s say that Tyrod Taylor, their backup, is elevated to the top spot. If Taylor does get the starting job, it won’t be the first time he has been a team’s Opening Day starter. He had that role with the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns. He doesn’t have the same skill set as a number of other veteran NFL quarterbacks who have hung around in the league a long time but he is mobile and can scramble when he wants to. He also tends to take care of the football.

At the same time, for all the ways in which he is different from plenty of his backup-QB peers, Taylor has a familiar quality shared by a lot of NFL quarterbacks who have generally not been good enough to become permanent long-term starters in the league: he isn’t consistent. Taylor will have two or three games in which he offers the promise of a quarterback who can lead a team to 12 wins, but just when it seems everything is going perfectly, he will play a terrible game and remind coaches and fans why he hasn’t been able to reach a higher level.

The issue is he’s never thrown for mor than 20 touchdowns in a season and the league is pass-oriented now. Taylor is merely a stop-gap filler and if he’s truly their long-term solution, the Chargers would be lucky to win seven games next season.

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